Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik

King Alexander on board Dubrovnik in October 1934 before his voyage to France.

Dubrovnik was completed at the Yarrow shipyards in Glasgow in 1932, by which time her main guns and light anti-aircraft guns had been installed. After sailing to the Bay of Kotor in the southern Adriatic, she was fitted with her heavy anti-aircraft guns.[9] She was commissioned with the Royal Yugoslav Navy in May 1932.[10] Her captain was Armin Pavić.[9]

In late September 1933, the ship left the Bay of Kotor and sailed through the Turkish Straits to Constanța on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, where she embarked King Alexander and Queen Maria of Yugoslavia. She then visited Balcic in Romania and Varna in Bulgaria, before returning via Istanbul and the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, arriving back at the Bay of Kotor on 8 October.[14] On 6 October 1934, King Alexander left the Bay of Kotor on board Dubrovnik for a state visit to France, arriving in Marseille on 9 October. He was killed the same day by a Bulgarian assassin, and Dubrovnik conveyed his body back to Yugoslavia, escorted by French, Italian[15] and British ships.[16] Soon after, Vladimir Šaškijević replaced Pavić as captain.[15] In August 1935, Dubrovnik visited Corfu and Bizerte in the French protectorate of Tunisia.[17] In August 1937, Dubrovnik visited Istanbul and the Greek ports of Mudros in the northern Aegean Sea and Piraeus near Athens.[18]

Despite trying to remain neutral in the early stages of the World War II, Yugoslavia was drawn into the conflict in April 1941, when it was invaded by the German-led Axis powers. At the time, Dubrovnik was still under Šaškijević's command and was assigned as the flagship of the 1st Torpedo Division, along with the smaller Beograd-class destroyers, Beograd and Zagreb.[15] On 6 April, the date the invasion began, Dubrovnik was in the Bay of Kotor.[19]

The Italians captured Dubrovnik in the Bay of Kotor on 17 April 1941; she had been damaged by Yugoslav civilians prior to her seizure. Dubrovnik was sailed to Taranto in southern Italy on 21 May, where she underwent repairs and a refit. She was renamed Premuda, after the Dalmatian island near which an Italian motor torpedo boat had sunk the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent István in June 1918. Her aft deckhouse and emergency bridge were removed and replaced with an anti-aircraft platform, and her mainmast and funnels were shortened. Her four single mount Škoda 140 mm (5.5 in) L/56 guns were replaced by four single mount 135 mm L/45 guns and her twin Škoda 83.5 mm (3.29 in) L/55 anti-aircraft guns were replaced by a 120 mm (4.7 in) L/15 howitzer firing star shells for illumination, while the six Škoda 40 mm (1.6 in) L/67 anti-aircraft guns were replaced by four Breda Model 35 20 mm (0.79 in) L/65 machine guns in single mounts,[15] space for the latter being made available by removing her searchlights. A new director was also fitted to her bridge.[20] Later in her Italian service, the 120 mm (4.7 in) howitzer was replaced by a twin Breda 37 mm (1.5 in) L/54 anti-aircraft gun mount.[15] Under the Italian flag, her crew consisted of 13 officers and 191 enlisted ranks.[9]

Premuda was commissioned in the Italian Navy (Italian: Regia Marina) in February 1942.[15] Later that month she rescued British prisoners of war who survived the sinking of the SS Ariosto, an Italian ship ferrying them from Tripoli to Sicily.[21] In early June, the Italian submarine Alagi fired on Premuda, mistaking her for a British destroyer owing to her similarities with a British H-class destroyer. The attack missed Premuda and struck the Navigatori-class destroyer Antoniotto Usodimare, sinking her.[22] During 12–16 June 1942, Premuda took part in operations against the Allied Operation Harpoon convoy attempting to reach the beleaguered island of Malta from Gibraltar. As part of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, Premuda supported the Italian 7th Cruiser Squadron, comprising the light cruisers Eugenio di Savoia and Raimondo Montecuccoli. The Allied naval force lost two destroyers and four merchant ships to a combination of naval gunfire, torpedoes, air attacks, and naval mines.[23] The Navigatori-class destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi was hit by a British destroyer, and Premuda was tasked to tow her to safety in the harbour of Pantelleria, an island in the Strait of Sicily, under escort from the destroyer Lanzerotto Malocello.[15]

On 6–7 January 1943, Premuda and 13 other Italian destroyers transported troops to the Axis-held port of Tunis in North Africa.[15] They completed two more such missions between 9 February and 22 March.[24] On 17 July, Premuda developed serious engine problems in the Ligurian Sea near La Spezia.[25] She was subsequently brought to Genoa for a major boiler and engine overhaul.[26] It was decided to rebuild her along the lines of the Navigatori-class, including a wider beam to improve her stability. As shells for her Škoda-built main guns were in short supply, the decision was made to replace them with Italian-made 135 mm (5.3 in) /L45 guns in single mounts.[25] The rebuild was also to have included augmented 37 mm and 20 mm armament, probably using space made available by removing her aft torpedo tubes.[20] The rebuild had not been completed when Italy surrendered to the Allies, and Premuda was seized by Germany at Genoa on 8 or 9 September 1943.[20][25] Premuda was the most important and effective Italian war prize ship of World War II.[26]

Premuda's new guns had not been completed when she was captured by the Germans. Their initial plans called for the ship to serve as a radar picket for night fighters, with three 105 mm (4.1 in) L/45 anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, Freya early-warning radar, Würzburg gun-laying radar and a FuMO 21 surface fire-control system. These plans were soon abandoned because the Germans lacked destroyers and torpedo boats in the Mediterranean, and the decision was made to commission her as a Torpedoboot Ausland (foreign torpedo boat) with a DeTe radar instead of the Freya and Würzburg radar sets.[25][26] Her armament was replaced with four 105 mm (4.1 in) L/45 naval guns, eight 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-aircraft guns and between thirty-two and thirty-six 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-aircraft guns in quadruple and twin mounts. The number of torpedo tubes was reduced from six to three. The number of 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-aircraft guns was later increased to ten, in four twin and two single mounts.[25] In German service, she had a total crew of 220 officers and men.[9]

HMS Meteor (pictured) and HMS Lookout outgunned TA32 and her companions during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea in March 1945.

The ship was commissioned in the German Navy (German: Kriegsmarine) on 18 August 1944, as TA32, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Emil Kopka. She served in the Ligurian Sea with the 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, and was immediately committed to shelling Allied positions on the Italian coast, then scouting and minelaying tasks in the western Gulf of Genoa.[25] On 2 October 1944, TA32, along with TA24 and TA29, sailed towards Sanremo to lay mines, where they encountered the destroyer USS Gleaves. After exchanging fire, the three ships returned to Genoa without being hit.[27] By mid-March 1945, TA32, TA24 and TA29 were the only ships of the 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla that remained operational.[25] On the night of 17/18 March 1945, TA32 placed 76 naval mines off Cap Corse, the northern tip of Corsica, in an offensive minelaying operation, along with TA24 and TA29.[28] After being detected by a shore-based radar, the ships were engaged by the destroyers HMS Lookout and HMS Meteor, in what would become known as the Battle of the Ligurian Sea.[28][29] Outgunned, TA24 and TA29 were sunk, while TA32 managed to escape with light damage to her rudder, after firing a few rounds and making an abortive torpedo attack.[25][28] TA32 was scuttled at Genoa on 24 April 1945 as the Germans retreated.[25] Her wreck was raised and broken up in 1950.[26]

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• Birmingham Post (14 May 2003). "PoW Survivors Re-Live Sinking by Submarine". Birmingham Post. Birmingham, England: Trinity.
• Freivogel, Zvonimir (2014). "From Glasgow to Genoa under Three Flags – The Yugoslav Flotilla Leader Dubrovnik" (PDF). Voennyi Sbornik. Academic Publishing House Researcher. 4 (2): 83–88. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
• Glasgow. Princess Olga of Yugoslavia names and launches Flotilla Leader 'Dubrovnik' – most powerful in its class – British Built in Yarrow's famous yard – for Yugoslavian Navy (Motion picture). Glasgow, UK: British Pathé. 1931. Event occurs at 0:21.